“Venezuela’s Vice president Delcy Rodriguez denounced Wednesday that a ship containing 25 thousand tonnes of Soya has been seized in the Panama Canal due to the U.S. blockade while calling on the United Nations to take action against the ‘serious aggression’ that impede Venezuela ‘right to food’,” reports TeleSUR English.

“The shipment seizure comes just days after Trump signed an executive order Monday that imposes a near-total blockade on government assets in that country, which includes an embargo against food suppliers, among other basic inputs,” the report reads.

As we’ve discussed previously, starvation sanctions are in many ways worse than overt warfare, because they can be just as deadly while eliminating the protective public outcry and accountability that comes with conventional warfare. Sanctions are the only form of warfare where it is considered both legal and acceptable to deliberately target a civilian population with deadly force. And this is exactly why the US-centralized empire prefers economic warfare to conventional warfare; sure it’s a little slower, but it allows for the same amount of brute force against noncompliant populations with none of the public and international backlash. It lets them have their Vietnams without the accompanying antiwar movements.

The use of this squeezing, financial python-like attack method ranges all the way from large-scale economic warfare on entire noncompliant nations to economic sanctions on noncompliant individuals. A judge on Monday ruled that whistleblower Chelsea Manning can continue to be held in contempt for another year while suffering crippling fines of $1,000 per day for her principled refusal to testify in a secret grand jury where her Fifth Amendment rights are legally null and void.

“Judge Anthony Trenga has denied Chelsea’s Motion to Reconsider and ruled that she be incarcerated for another 400 days and be fined $441,000 when she is released,” reads a post on Manning’s official Twitter account.

“While the judge has authority to sanction Ms. Manning in an effort to convince her to comply with his order to testify before the grand jury, he does not have the authority to impose sanctions for punitive purposes,” reportsThe Sparrow Project. “In her motion, Ms. Manning argued that the sanctions, including both incarceration and steep daily fines, will never coerce her compliance with the Court’s order, and therefore impermissibly serve only a punitive function.”

Again, if Manning were being physically brutalized or placed in the stocks in the town square like a disobedient medieval serf, there would be international outcry, in exactly the same way there’d be international outcry if the Trump administration were launching Tomahawk missiles into Caracas. But slamming someone with crippling debt they’ll likely never be able to pay off their entire life for civil disobedience receives little or no public backlash, in the same way economic warfare against Venezuela receives little or no public backlash.

We see this siege warfare strategy being employed by the US power alliance all across the board. We see it with Iran and Venezuela. We see it in Yemen, where in addition to deadly blockades the Saudis have been deliberate targeting farms, fishing boats, marketplaces, food storage sites and cholera treatment centers with US-assisted airstrikes. We see it in North Korea, where boats full of dead people have been washing up on Japan’s shores because fishermen get stuck out at sea trying to catch food since they can’t afford enough fuel to get back to shore, which former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attributed to US sanctions. We see it in Gaza, where people are being deprived of an adequate amount of nutrients due to an Israeli blockade designed to “put the Palestinians on a diet”. We saw it with Julian Assange, where Ecuador collaborated with the US to slowly make life in the embassy more and more hellish in the hope that he’d step outside to be arrested by British police. We see it with Chelsea Manning.

One of the many challenges we face as a society is that we’re always a few clicks behind the murderous oppressors who are driving us down an Orwellian, omnicidal, ecocidal trajectory. We’ve caught on to all the tricks they were using a few decades ago, but now they’ve got a whole new array of tools that our eyes aren’t yet trained to watch for on a large scale. We’re not yet trained to watch for civilian-slaughtering warfare that doesn’t involve bombs or missiles. We’re not yet trained to watch for empire-armed local militias which accomplish all the bloodshed with none of the flag-draped coffins coming home. We’re not yet trained to pay attention to the prevalence of drone strikes. We’re not yet trained to pay attention to the tremendous advances in the field of war propaganda.

If we want to change the world, we’re going to have to find a way to educate ourselves about the latest tricks of the empire in real time and on a mass scale. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

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ricardo2000/August 13, 2019

Thank you Ms. Johnstone, this article illustrates the fact that empire will allow no boundaries for itself, even as it demands adherence to ‘law’. These are the same people who called Jim Crow segregation natural, cheered brutally stupid police bigotries as necessary, and smiled when another ‘lone wolf’ traitor shot down children while they hid behind a car’s engine block. No one should forget that the modern CONservative is a lying coward.

Venezuelan/August 9, 2019

The Panama Canal authority denied the incident reported by the Venezuelan regime vice president. This was just an excuse to justify them leaving the negotiating table in Barbados.

BTY, You should disclose that the photo on the handle corresponds to Chelsea Manning. Also, that you are an unredeemable socialist (per your Facebook, a Bogan socialist, Anarcho-psychonaut. Guerrilla poet). A Bernie girl through and through. Your twitter https://twitter.com/caitoz

If you want the truth, #AskAVenezuelan. DOn’t rely on “opinions” of pro-Chavez socialists. Do your own research people.

Luke/August 10, 2019

Let me guess daddy owns a buisness, it doesnt produce anything useful. The only place you have been outside of Caracas is Miami, maybe Cali for Uni. You believe everything you hear on corporate media, daddy says they’re right. You aren’t Venezuelan, you are the vestigial tail of Spanish imperialism. Yes people should do their own research but fucking twitter is not the place to do that. How do you pretend to be starving and oppressed while at the same time spending your time bitching on the fuckin internet? Surely you’re too tired from chasing trash trucks around all day. Look you are as fucking pig ignorant as the Yankees you are being used to propagandise. Please tell me your views on the Mestizo population and the fact that they have democratically beat your ass in elections time after time. You dont have to be a socialist, but calling for starvation siege sanctions and a Yankee invasion? It needs a new word to describe it. Fashtarded? I wonder if twitter is disproportionately filled with the other, English speaking fashtarded Venezuelans?

NJH/August 8, 2019

Yet another deplorable situation for the starving people of Venezuela. Pitiful! And deserving of (yet another) Nuremberg Trial for the “exceptional” country that always operates above (and below) any standard it imposes on other countries. Have you noticed how the US “plays” with its supposed enemies like a game of ping pong, trying to slam Iran with sanctions and ultimatums for a few weeks, and if they don’t work, it goes back to its vicious game with Venezuela (or China, Russia, N. Korea, Cuba, etc), upping the ante with more severe punishment in order to force it to capitulate to its demands! Manning and Assange are nothing but whipping boys for the US’s psychopathic, delirious need for unilateral, global power.

Ishkabibble/August 8, 2019

”One of the many challenges we face as a society is that we’re always a few clicks behind the murderous oppressors who are driving us down an Orwellian, omnicidal, ecocidal trajectory. We’ve caught on to all the tricks they were using a few decades ago, but now they’ve got a whole new array of tools that our eyes aren’t yet trained to watch for on a large scale. We’re not yet trained to watch for civilian-slaughtering warfare that doesn’t involve bombs or missiles. We’re not yet trained to watch for empire-armed local militias which accomplish all the bloodshed with none of the flag-draped coffins coming home. We’re not yet trained to pay attention to the prevalence of drone strikes. We’re not yet trained to pay attention to the tremendous advances in the field of war propaganda. .. If we want to change the world, we’re going to have to find a way to educate ourselves about the latest tricks of the empire in real time and on a mass scale. We’ve got our work cut out for us.” .. Caitlin and Tim, what you say above is IMO mostly wishful thinking. You assume that because The People of the US have elected warmongers time after time after time, that they must not know the truth. IMO your belief matches that of those who believe that Trump is Putin’s puppet and that Putin meddled so much in US voters’ minds that that is the one and only reason why Trump is sitting in the Oval Orifice. Both sets of believers are incapable of facing reality. .. There was no internet in the late 1920s, all of the 1930s and early 1940s Germany. Ordinary Germans sometimes had literally no alternative sources of information to that of the government. In 1946 a German could reasonably argue that he/she “didn’t know” what his/her government was doing to the world. .. No such case could be made by those who have been living in the US for the first two decades of the 21st century. IMO, the latter would have had to be DELIBERATELY blind NOT to realize what the US had been doing to the rest of the world for that period of time, and that is but the tip of the iceberg of historic US aggression around the world. Maybe children could support this claim, but adults, no way.

The REALITY is that the US’s decades-long pattern of behavior PROVES BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT that the vast majority of people in the US FULLY SUPPORT what the US government has been inflicting on the rest of the world. Maybe as much as 20% of the adult US population is against their government’s behavior, but even that is probably an overly generous estimate. .. The fact of the matter is that the US populace fears atoning for its blatantly obvious mortal sins so much that it fully supports a perpetually-increasing war budget in order to AVOID punishment by the millions who have been victims of US hegemony. In other words, at this point in US history, the US must CONTINUE its unjustified, world-wide killing spree or be subjected to probably very harsh, Versailles-Treaty/Nuremberg-trial-like punishment.

I agree with you that it is wishful thinking. Most Americans do support what we do, though they prefer not to know too much about it, and if push came t shove and they were informed that in abandoning the empire set up would involve a harsh cut back in consumerism, well that’d be a very hard sell. Americans do not know they are 4.4% of the world’s population, occupy 7% of landmass and consume 25% of global resources. Most could not get their heads around the disproportion and if told they must cut consumption by 4 times to get near their “fair share” they tell you to take a long hike. Brutal reality.

Data/August 8, 2019

Note, Puerto Rico has shown what some of the most powerless people in America can do when they gather peacefully in large crowds and demand change and refuse to back down even when attacked by the police. Just saying. There is a reason why The Narrative has generally covered that as little as they could get away with. They’d hate for other people to get the same idea.

Data/August 8, 2019

We will know that economic power in the world is approaching a state of balance when we see nations begin to sanction the USA for its crimes against humanity. And that may not be off in some distant future, as due to the US declaring economic wars around the world, the list of nations that would have nothing to lose in such a stance is growing by leaps and bounds.

Joe Van Steenbergen/August 8, 2019

glider/August 8, 2019

Chelsea is getting inventive double jeopardy treatment. I recently read tweet from Kim Dotcom claiming he was able to predict w 100% accuracy the outcome of the litigation against him by studying the background. While anecdotes are not evidence it is certainly reasonable that knowledge of judges proprietorial records and backgrounds could be used by the powers-that-be to steer outcomes to their desired end. It would be an interesting article to look into how Judge Trenga was selected and whether there was any strategy being employed by DOJ on that end in conspiracy against Assange. Just poking about Wikipedia shows he was appointed to position by Bush, and previously worked for law firm whose partner became Paul Manafort’s lawyer recently.

glider/August 8, 2019

Data/August 8, 2019

According to deep-state edited Wikipedia, Trenga was appointed late in the Bush/Cheney regime. I remember that was back when there was a gang of Democratic Senators that were saying they’d break any filibuster that would try to block Bush/Cheney judicial appointments. They called themselves the Gang of Seven, IIRC. He was a law clerk for a guy known as “Mr. Republican.” (aka Ted Dalton) Among his ‘notable cases is “On March 24, 2017, Trenga was the first federal judge to rule in favor of the Trump administration’s executive order that limits travel from six Muslim-majority countries.[5]”

Data/August 8, 2019

“judge shopping” is very much a thing in the American system. Ie, people rig the system to have the case land in a court that they know will give a favorable ruling. (yes Google, I can tell a green field from a cold steel rail!)

Michel Bélisle/August 8, 2019

I think everybody who has voted for mainstream political parties in elections is responsible for all the crimes against other people in other countries because since 9/11 in particular you cannot ignore the nature of those political parties.

The truth is that there is nothing we can do if enough people vote to keep mainstream establishment political parties in power.

And to tell people to stop voting for mainstream establishment political parties would give nothing because we are in the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus and as such, almost everybody is of bad faith and vote only for selfish interests.

I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus because I have really really seen enough of all the bullshit. According to many prophecies, it could be any day now.

BlueGreen/August 8, 2019

“The truth is that there is nothing we can do if enough people vote to keep mainstream establishment political parties in power.”

support Caitlin, education is the key to solving this issue, why do you think TPTB spend so much effort on controlling narratives, everyperson you talk to and help to understand and then is fully aware they need to pass it on too, especially to children (unschooling) will eventually pave over this vicious oligarch cycle causing us to flounder asa stable species (bacteria grow out of control too…)

Data/August 8, 2019

I’ve lived in an American state where there was literally no other choices on the ballot. To try to get Ralph Nader on the ballot, we were required to submit about 80,000 petition signatures. Since the Democrats controlled many counties and hated Nader with a passion, they went through the signatures and threw out any where the signature, signed on an August day with 100 deg F temps did not exactly match the signature from years before when, at a counter in an air conditioned office, the voter filled out a voter registration card. Thus, our goal was to collect 150,000 signatures knowing the Democrats would throw out many of them. Ralph Nader did not appear on that states ballot in 2000, nor in any other year.

klaus von berlin/August 8, 2019

In 1968 oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, in 1969 in the North Sea, but at $3/barrel was not viable. Enter Kharzarian Kissinger, who created OPEC, the Oct 1973 oil crisis and the Nov 1973 Tricky Dick Alaska pipeline act. The pipeline opened in 1977, but $13/barrel was impractical, so bring CIA Khomeini to Iran, boycott and get $40/barrel. US develops fracking but needs $100/barrel….no problem, remove Iraq, Libyan and Syrian oil from the market. Ruthless, international piracy as guiding statesmanship. Please let there be eternal hell, these tyrants deserve nothing less.

Rod Coffman/August 8, 2019

Kissinger didn’t create the Petrol D0llar, the British did. many of the words used in the Kissinger transcripts still had British spelling. I certainly agree with your points, after Nixon closed the gold window, the US and Britain created the Petrol D0llar. The US d0llar certainly is not fiat currency, the US dollar is simply convertible to crude. In 2005 Saudi Oil Minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani stated; “The Stone Age didn’t end for lack of stone, and the oil age will end long before the world runs out of oil.” He went on to say, 30-years from now oil will be left in the ground. Khomeini was a British asset not US, the Shah needed to be overthrown because he didn’t understand what the US and Britain were trying to do with the price of hydrocarbons, the Shah continued to sell oil at the lower cost. As you point out, tar sands require a $100 barrel and has a $40 lift cost. I would think that early next year once the Siberian pipeline is completed, crude will be selling at $40 and the US/Canadian Tar Sand scam starts crumbling down. I would think once this happens the US/British Petrol D0llar system collapses and we move onto something else.

“Sanctions are the only form of warfare where it is considered both legal and acceptable to deliberately target a civilian population with deadly force.” In other words, a “politically correct” crime against humanity! What a weapon in the hands of the ruling sociopaths! Note that it is only politically correct because of the extensive mind control program used on the public (the controlled narrative), which is the even bigger weapon the ruling sociopaths wield. “If we want to change the world, we’re going to have to find a way to educate ourselves about the latest tricks of the empire in real time and on a mass scale.” I second that. Interestingly, their tricks haven’t really changed. We perceive them as changing, but only because we don’t the real history of their trickery. Those who don’t know the history of their trickery are doomed to repeatedly fall for it.

Roy/August 8, 2019

Yup!! You’re right!! This country America is God awful; not just everywhere else but right here in the States as well, even killing people in their 90’s for no other reason than they took too long to cross the street, and, I don’t know for sure, but I think that they’re even killing truck drivers just so that they can steal their rigs, because the law here gives the police that right, and I think I even witnessed it.

RC - Garrs/August 8, 2019

God is in human terms, inhuman. God planned this inhumanity about which Ms Johnstone writes. Folks like to chatter about how God has a plan. This is the plan. God always intended that humans would fail and die.

Cookie-cutter imperialism – if you don’t cut them down with arms, starve them to death. Or whatever. This is the USA today, and yesterday and tomorrow. Our media will not cover it because our media is owned by the same powers that make the weapons, institute the policies and do what they do in the name of wonderful America. Most Americans neither know what is done in their names, with their taxes, nor do most want to know. They wish to live in their fantasy, and the governing powers wish to keep them exactly like that. Easier that way. The USA is as sick as Nazi Germany was, but far worse because it is far more powerful and able to do what it wants without too much resistance, either domestically or by foreign powers. Most Americans really believe we are the good guys, and not the butchers. Makes it easier to sleep at night.

mike k/August 8, 2019

Evil Empires get their name by doing evil. Starving innocent civilians indiscriminately is evil. The US government is evil. Supporting the US government in any way is abetting evil. To attack and criticize the US government is the duty of any good citizen. Not to do so makes you complicit in unspeakable crimes and evil.

Roy/August 8, 2019

LOL. You are so right, and because I do my entire family and friends are aiding and abetting the the authorities attempts to make my death look like an accident. They rob your bank accounts, disable every possible means to speak, including postal mail, so go ahead and talk big, but if you do, prepare to die, just as I am and most likely will.

It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Mike K speaks the truth. Caitlin Johnstone helps tremendously as well, as we can all attest to. What a wonderful website this is. How long before it will be targeted and disappear? Hey, it happened to me.

I think the US has been subsumed by the Evil Empire of Sith Lords, but I can’t see them. They are hidden. They mind control the politicians. The last Jedi warrior got shot in Dallas, when I was a kid. “There was another”, but he got shot in LA.http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/08/mutineers.html

It’s terribly tempting to want to feed the hungry proletariat the meal they desire. But each of those comics you mention have all made me laugh hard. Much of late night comedy now sadly is remarkably interchangeable. Don’t despair https://t.co/MePoHPzcJq

@RobSchneider This is exactly why I reserve a special hatred for comedians like Bill Maher, Steve Colbert, Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah who sell their talent to the churning out of propaganda for establishment power structures. https://t.co/vTVPNe3kU8

Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All":

People like Ashton Kutcher imagine that the so-called “center” is called that because it sits smack dab in the middle of the ideological spectrum between communism and fascism, right in that moderate sweet spot that respects capitalism and private ownership without flying off the deep end into Nazi-like tyranny. In reality, the status quo exists entirely outside any left-right paradigm. It’s neither “left” nor “right” to give total control of the western world to an alliance of plutocrats and opaque government agencies who seek to expand their power and wealth by destroying our ecosystem, waging endless wars, and gradually shoring up more and more control of their citizenry via internet censorship, surveillance and police militarization. It’s just crazy.

I’m picking on Ashton not because he occupies some special place in all this, but because he doesn’t. He’s just an illustration of how blind people have become to the real threat that’s right in front of them, and how normalized insanity has become.

People who identify as “left” see the ruling power establishment as right-wing, people who identify as “right” see the ruling power establishment as left-wing, and people who identify as “center” see themselves as moderates whose normal, healthy way of life is under threat by the “far right” and “far left”. But really all that’s happening is a few assholes fucking over everyone else, which is no more “left” or “right” than a terrorist attack. The left versus right argument doesn’t even make sense until this far more pressing issue has been resolved. A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive.